I liked Star Wars a lot when it was first released, but I really loved The Empire Strikes Back. It was so much more nuanced and realistically darker – it seemed like we had such great things to look forward to in the series. Then Return of the Jedi came out, and there was just nothing there. I remember hoping that it was just an aberration. It might not have seemed quite so bad if TESB hadn’t been so good.
Then after so many years had gone by, and Lucas had piled up more money than any human could possibly spend in a lifetime, he gives us the dual crapfests of Episode I & II. Maybe it’s contempt for the audience, maybe the guy really did try and his artistic sensibilities are just that bad, I don’t know. Episode II was so awful, I still haven’t seen III.
I used to think it would be really cool when they finally got around to making Episodes VII – IX. I still hold out a slender thread of hope that they might get made someday, but only if Lucas has no creative involvement whatsoever.
